


A Mixen Story

by Crypticbeliever123



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-03-26 18:07:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13863066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crypticbeliever123/pseuds/Crypticbeliever123
Summary: After a drunken night of passion Amaya has to face the destiny that's awaited her all along. But can she do so and somehow face Mick after?





	1. One Night

Amaya awoke the morning after a long mission to something firm underneath her and an arm wrapped around her back. She knew it wasn’t Nate, they had been fighting recently, more to the point the form she was lying on top of was much bigger and had more muscle. As her eyes blinked open she could see her bed partner was none other than Mick Rory, a friend she never imagined being in this position with. She was frozen in both shock and fear she’d wake him.

 

He was still sound asleep which Amaya was more than grateful for. Last night had been a mistake. They had been drunk and gotten into bed together and done something so stupid. More importantly, though they were fighting, she and Nate were still together. This kind of betrayal would break his heart. Somehow not fully remembering what they had done made this fact both better and worse. On the one hand, she couldn’t be fully blamed for making a mistake she couldn’t remember. On the other, alcohol didn’t make someone do anything they wouldn’t do, just made it easier to stop listening to one’s conscience.

 

But if the latter was true then why had she done this? Sure, she and Mick got along rather well. He was always there for her when she needed it and he was plenty handsome. But did that mean she wanted to sleep with him?

 

Pondering this question she finally let herself take in his sleeping form, eyes dragging over his bare body, his muscle, his scars, the way his face looked so relaxed in sleep. She never thought she would see him like this. Certainly not naked.

 

As her fingers began to trace the patterns of Mick’s burns memories of last night started to come back to her. She remembered that she had started them off when she crashed her lips to his when he came over to comfort her over her ongoing fight with Nate. She remembered how he had let her take top and growled with desire when she took off her clothes, how big he was and how amazing it felt when he filled her completely. She had to bite her lip so as to fight back a moan at the memory. Damn he was good.

 

Slowly and quietly she slipped out of bed and out of Mick’s arms, making her way to her dresser for a quick change of clothes before sneaking away to the shower.

 

* * *

 

Mick awoke to the chilly air of the room and quickly realized that he was alone in the bed. He had hoped that when he awoke Amaya would still be there and the first thing he’d have seen that morning would be her happy, sleeping face. But no. Of course she had to wake up before him. Of course she’d be too professional to stay in bed for even a moment. Damn.

 

Oh well, at least last night was fun. More than fun, really. He had had feelings for Amaya ever since Chicago and the whole Bonnie and Clyde thing. Of course, he had been too busy dealing with the ghost of his dead partner at the time to make a move. Because of that she wound up with Nate instead and he had lost his chance. Or so he thought. But last night, last night was so amazing. It was the best he’s had in a long time. Though that might have had something to do with the fact that he had never been with someone he had genuine feelings for before.

 

Either way, he was happy to have gotten that moment with her. He could still hear her moans of pleasure and the way she shouted his name when he made her come. He could still feel every curve of her body and how it pressed against his so deliciously. He could burn that memory into his brain every second of every day for the rest of his life. And he certainly wouldn’t mind a repeat.

 

Now he needed to go talk to Amaya and see if she felt the same. She must, right? The things they said last night after they were done… they had been even better than the sex.

 

* * *

 

 

_Mick traced patterns into the skin of Amaya’s back as she giggled in the afterglow of their love-making. She hummed, happily satisfied as she pressed a kiss to his chest._

_“What are you thinking about?” she asked him lazily as she started to succumb to sleep._

_“Just thinking that… that I’m going to wake up the next morning and… all of this will have just been another great dream.”_

_“Why’s that?”_

_“Because I… Because I love you and… I know you love Nate… and this was probably just some mistake to you but… this is so much more to me. I’ve never had these- these feelings before. I don’t- I,” he said before being cut off by Amaya’s lips pressed upon his._

_“No mistake, Mick. I love you too,” she smiled at him before resting her head on his shoulder and curling deeper into his side almost immediately falling asleep._

_Mick gasped at the words she had just said and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Never before had anyone said that they loved him. To hear those words from the amazing woman beside him filled his heart with a joy he had never known._

 

* * *

 

 

Heading down the halls of the ship, Mick bumped into Amaya as she rounded a corner.

 

“Oh Mick. I didn’t see you there. Listen uh about last night. We- we need to talk.”

“Okay,” he said simply, fearing that the expression on her face meant that what they had to talk about wouldn’t be pleasant.

“So look we were both pretty drunk last night and I know neither of us wants to ruin our friendship. So let’s just pretend it never happened. I mean, Mick, you’re one of my best friends and I would never want to-”

“Forget about it. I mean hell I don’t remember it anyway,” he said, lying through his teeth. Of course he remembered, and he was no more drunk last night than he’s ever been.

“Yeah, no, me neither,” she replied, twisting the knife in even more.

“Right, so, we good?”

“Yeah, Mick. We’re good. Thanks for understanding. You’re a good friend,” she said as she wrapped her arms around him.

 

 _Fuck!_ This isn’t what he wanted. If he had known she was drunk last night and wouldn’t remember he wouldn’t have let himself get caught up in the moment. Oh well, he’d suck it up just like he always does. He was fine being Amaya’s friend. That was enough for him. Last night was even more than he ever thought he’d get with her. Last night was enough. Being friends was enough. As long as Amaya could still look him in the eye he’d be happy.

 

As she wrapped her arms around Mick she felt a pang of guilt for lying to him about not remembering the night they spent together. Then again the twinge of pain she felt when he said he didn’t remember either hurt even worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought down below!


	2. Goodbye

In the weeks following her encounter with Mick, Amaya had been feeling off. She’d been grouchier than normal and when she wasn’t on the verge of throwing up she’d get the strangest cravings. Seriously. Who would ever think of putting peanut butter in a ham salad sandwich? At least it tasted better than it sounded. But still, with these strange symptoms Amaya couldn’t help but wonder could she be…

 

“Pregnant, Ms. Jiwe. It would seem as though you are three weeks along in your gestation,” Gideon informed her when she went to the Medbay for a diagnostic check.

“You sure, Gideon?”

“Yes, Ms. Jiwe. It also appears to be a female embryo you are currently carrying, quite possibly the same female that shall birth Kuasa and Mari in the future.”

“But you’re not sure?”

“The genetic code of Kuasa and Mari’s mother is not in my database. However, Kuasa’s DNA is and if you would like I’d be more than happy to perform a genetic comparison between her mitochondrial DNA and that of your unborn child.”

“Yes do that… And Gideon?”

“Yes, Ms. Jiwe?”

“Can you run the baby’s DNA against Mick and Nate’s as well. I… I need to know which of them is…”

“Understood Ms. Jiwe. And I shall be as discreet as possible.”

“Thank you, Gideon.”

 

After the test results came back as a match to both Kuasa and to Mick, Amaya was left deeply disturbed. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Mick or wasn’t ready to be a mother. She just had no idea what she was supposed to do now. On the one hand, her destiny never explicitly stated that her child’s father was involved with their lives, but she had always assumed and not telling Mick would be deceitful and probably the worst thing she had ever done. On the other, how could she possibly tell him? How could she tell Nate?

 

She had cheated on Nate with Mick and now she was pregnant with his child. She wasn’t sure who would react worse, Nate or Mick. Nate would be pissed for sure and Mick… oh Mick, what would he think? Would he want to raise their daughter with her? Would he be upset and not want anything to do with the kid? She had no idea what his thoughts on fatherhood were and either way she was positive that he couldn’t come back to Zambezi with her. His presence in the past could upset the timeline. After all, if he had been a part of her child and grandchildren’s lives then Kuasa would’ve recognized him as well as she had recognized her, the records would have mentioned him being there. Besides, there was no way that Mick would ever allow their future to come to pass if he knew that Kuasa and Mari were his granddaughters too.

 

Not telling Mick would be a terrible thing to do to him but telling him could throw everything in her future off. What was she to do? She had to make a decision fast before her destiny caught up with her. Pacing the halls of the ship who should come up to her but Mick himself.

 

“Hey. You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m- I’m fine, Mick. Really.”

“You don’t look fine. Come on, let’s go to the Galley and get a drink. It’ll make you feel better.”

“No. I- I’m not in the mood for a drink, Mick. Seriously though I’m fine.”

“Thinking about your granddaughters again?” he asked, earning a questioning look from Amaya.

“You’re not that hard to figure out. Pretty much whenever you’re mopey it’s because you’re thinking too much about your destiny and all the noise that comes with it. You know you don’t have to let history decide your fate. You can figure that all out for yourself.”

“I know, Mick. And it’s sweet of you to try and cheer me up but…”

“But what?”

“But I really have to go. I have to head back to Zambezi. Gideon mentioned earlier that time is cementing and that if I don’t go back now then Kuasa and Mari won’t exist, and I just can’t do that to them.”

“Oh,” Mick replied, trying to hide how much he hated the thought of Amaya leaving for good.

 

There was no denying that he was going to miss having her around. Hell he’d been dreading this day since the moment he started having feelings for her. Unlike the rest of them who were brought onto the team because they were insignificant to the timeline, Amaya had a destiny to attend to, she had a future that needed her to return home someday. He had just hoped that someday wouldn’t be today.

 

“Yeah. It’s been good knowing you, Mick, I’m really going to miss you,” Amaya said as she pulled him into a hug.

“It’s been good knowing you too. And who knows, maybe if we get a mission in Zambezi we can see each other again, maybe even meet that kid of yours,” he said with a smile that made Amaya feel all the more guilty for what she was doing.

 

Would Mick want to know his daughter? Could he know her? No. She had to stop thinking about this or she’d never work up the nerve to leave. As much as it pained her to lie to him like this she had to keep the secret for the sake of the timeline, her daughter, and her granddaughters. She had to lie. She had to leave and never tell him the truth. It’d be too big of a risk to do otherwise.

 

“Yeah… maybe,” Amaya smiled back at him.

“So, what are we waiting for? Let’s go tell the others you’re heading home so we can throw you a going away party.”

 

Amaya let out a small laugh at that. Leave it to Mick to always find a way to cheer her up even when it felt like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

 

“Yeah. Let’s,” she said with a smile as she followed him down the hall to alert the others to her decision to go home, leaving out the part where she was leaving because she was pregnant with her daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought down below!


	3. Like Father Like Daughter

Five years had passed since she left the Waverider and her young daughter, Ashanti, is a playful little girl who’s as strong-willed and rebellious as her father, Mick. If her personality didn’t remind her of Mick, the way her daughter would watch the flames dance whenever the village gathered around a fire certainly did. Her eyes would match Mick’s so perfectly both in expression as well as color that Amaya would reminisce about her days with the Legends, fighting alongside her child’s father and their friends.

 

But there were times where Amaya saw a little of herself in her child as well. Times where Ashanti would show such fondness and care for animals and people alike. She was such a sweet child, even if she was being mischievous.

 

Then one day Amaya’s village got some company from a group of people Amaya was almost certain she’d never see again.

 

“Hey, Mye, did you miss us?” Nate asked with a huge smile as he came up to hug Amaya.

“Nate, what are you guys doing here?”

“Oh you know the usual. Anachronisms to find, timeline to protect. So how’s the past few years been?” Sara asked.

“Pretty good. I-” Amaya began to say before Ashanti came running in to greet the strangers.

“Cute kid,” Mick remarked as the bubbly little girl came bounding in.

“She’s mine,” Amaya said to everyone’s surprise.

“Wow. You uh… you have a kid already. Didn’t think it’d been long enough for that,” Nate said uncomfortably.

“So where’s her dad? Can we meet him?” Ray asked.

“Oh no, you can’t he uh he passed away shortly after Ashanti was born.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Nate said, placing a hand on Amaya’s shoulder.

“OW!” he cried out just moments after as Ashanti kicked him in the shin.

“ _Ashanti that’s not nice!_ ” Amaya scolded her daughter in her native tongue as Mick laughed at her… their daughter’s actions.

“It’s not funny, Mick,” Amaya said, turning to him with a glare.

“Sure it is,” Mick smiled before noticing a tug on his pant leg.

 

He looked down and saw Ashanti staring up at him before pulling on his pant leg again.

 

“What do you want?” he asked the girl.

“She doesn’t speak English. But I think she wants you to crouch down to her level.”

“Oh uh… okay,” Mick said, confused as to what this little kid wanted from him while kneeling down to look her in the eye.

 

Ashanti proceeded to place her hands on either side of his face, pulling at the skin around his eyes and squeezing his nose as a smile crept up on her face.

 

“Amaya how do you say ‘please stop touching my face’ in… whatever language you speak?”

“ _Ashanti let him go_ ,” Amaya asked of her daughter.

“Baba!” Ashanti giggled as she threw her arms around Mick.

 

Amaya’s eyes widened in shock. Baba was her people’s word for father. She had always told her daughter that her father had died when she was young. She never even called him by name. How did Ashanti know?

 

“What’s baba mean?” Mick asked as he hesitantly hugged the little girl back, not knowing what else to do.

“It uh means best friend. Ashanti must really like you.”

“Huh.”

 

Ashanti pulled away and grabbed Mick’s hand, pulling at it.

 

“Okay, I’ll follow you. Where are we-” Mick asked as he let Ashanti lead him over to Amaya before she released his hand and pushed him into her mother.

“Oh sorry Amaya. Strong kid.”

“Yeah. She is.”

“ _Mommy and daddy together!_ ”

“ _No, Ashanti. Remember? Your daddy died years ago._ ”

“ _No he didn’t. He’s right here. See? He has my eyes just like you said he did and my nose too!_ ”

“ _Mick isn’t your father._ ”

“ _Yes he is!_ ” Ashanti said with a stomp of her foot.

“Ashanti!”

“Should we go? Kind of seems like you two are fighting,” Sara asked.

“It’s nothing, just Ashanti can be really stubborn sometimes.”

“Yeah, I’m guessing she takes after her father,” Nate said stepping closer to Amaya.

“OW!” he cried out as Ashanti kicked him in the shin again.

“ _Stay away from my mommy! She belongs with daddy not you!_ ” Ashanti screamed with another kick.

“OW! Quit kicking me! Amaya!” Nate whined as he grabbed his foot.

“ _Ashanti, stop kicking. It’s not nice._ ”

 

Mick bellowed out a laugh.

 

“I like her. She’s feisty.”

 

Ashanti wrapped her arms around Mick’s leg and held him tightly.

 

“Baba,” she hummed with a bright smile on her face.

“Oh… uh…” Mick said trying to gently dislodge the girl from his leg to no avail, not even when he lifted his leg into the air.

“Guess she likes you too,” Zari laughed.

“Uh Amaya, a little help here?”

“ _Ashanti, let him go_ ,” Amaya asked in an exasperated tone.

“ _No._ ”

“Ashanti,” Amaya warned before her daughter pouted and slipped off of Mick’s leg.

“Sorry about that, Mick.”

“Nah it’s okay. She’s a good kid. Just a little clingy. She always like this?”

“Not really.”

“Ooh, you know what would be fun, is if she got to see the Waverider. Huh? Maybe it’d put her in a better mood,” Ray suggested.

“I don’t know, Ray. Wouldn’t that be a bit risky. You know with the whole time-travel rules and whatever?” Zari questioned.

“I don’t think it’ll cause any trouble. I mean we had Blackbeard on our ship and that didn’t screw up history… I mean besides turning Amaya into an infamous pirate queen,” Sara pointed out.

“Plus as long as we don’t tell her that the Waverider is a time ship everything should be just fine,” Ray added.

“I’m in if it gets her to stop kicking me,” Nate said before looking at the little girl staring daggers into his very soul.

 

Not hard to see where Kuasa got her charming personality from.

 

“Alright, alright. But if this screws up her future I’m blaming all of you,” Amaya said, pointing her finger at each of them.

“Don’t worry, we’re not going to ruin her future. Not like it could get much worse anyway,” Mick replied earning a glare from the mother of the child he didn’t know was his.

“Sorry… I swear, Amaya, we won’t let anything bad happen to her.”

“I know you won’t,” Amaya replied, taking her daughter into her arms and carrying her away.

“So, where’d you guys park the ship?”

“Over there. Kid’s going to love seeing the Waverider. Bet she’ll think that Gideon’s some sort of magic,” Mick responded.

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Amaya smiled at the thought of her daughter’s amazement at seeing the Waverider for the first time.

 

Meanwhile, as her mother carried her some ways away from their village, Ashanti wondered to herself what a time ship was or why they referred to her mother as a pirate queen. It was times like these that Ashanti was glad her mother didn’t know she spoke English. Made it that much easier for her to hear things her mother didn’t want her to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought down below!


	4. Welcome to Fatherhood

Amaya led her daughter onto the Waverider as Ashanti stared at everything with wide eyes and a bright smile that filled her heart with joy. She was always so happy to see her daughter’s face so full of delight. Now she got the chance to share a part of her life with her, the part that was a Legend, through their visit to the ship.

 

“And over here we have the Galley. It’s the place where we get all the yummy food,” Mick explained to the little girl, clueless as to their relation, before Amaya translated for her daughter, unaware that Ashanti knew every word her father was saying to her.

“ _What kind of food do you like, daddy?_ ” Ashanti asked in her native tongue.

“She wants to know what you like to eat,” Amaya informed Mick.

“Oh uh probably Twinkies are my favorite,” Mick answered with Amaya translating.

“ _What are Twinkies?_ ” Ashanti asked with a confused look on her face that her mother missed appearing just before she translated it.

“ _They are- They’re-_ Mick what the hell are Twinkies?”

“Oh this is going to be good. Trust me you’ll like ‘em,” Mick smirked as he stepped over to the replicator to cook up a tri of Twinkies for the three of them.

“Those look very sugary,” Amaya said with a sour expression as she saw the snack cakes.

“Exactly,” Mick smirked before bending down to hand Ashanti one of the Twinkies.

 

As soon as she bit into it her eyes went wide and a huge grin spread across her face.

 

“ _SO GOOD!_ ” the little girl squealed.

 

Amaya laughed at her daughter’s reaction.

 

“Alright, well if Ashanti likes them then maybe they’re worth a try,” Amaya replied as she picked up one of the remaining two snacks and took a bite out of it.

 

She then made a nasty face and shook her head.

 

“Mm, nope. Too sweet for me. Too much sugar,” Amaya remarked as she set the cake back on the platter in Mick’s hands.

“Suit yourself,” Mick responded as he grabbed the last Twinkie and set the tray aside so he could eat his snack.

“Mm, so how’d you meet Ashanti’s dad? Bet that must’ve been something.”

“Oh uh you know same way you meet anyone I guess. We just ran in the same circles, shared the same friends. Nothing special.”

“Hm,” Mick replied before looking over to see Ashanti trying to grab her mother’s partially eaten Twinkie from the table.

“Uh-uh no more Twinkies for you. That much sugar you’ll be up forever, and your mom will kill me for the headache you give her after,” Mick said as he took the little girl into his arms to keep her away from the snack cake.

“I would not.”

“Still don’t mean I wanna risk it.”

 

Ashanti then wrapped her arms around her father’s neck to Mick’s discomfort as he wasn’t used to children in the slightest, especially not with having one in his arms who was hugging him. This was weird. This was so very weird.

 

“ _I love you, daddy_ ,” Ashanti said into Mick’s ear.

“What’d she say?”

“She said she loves you.”

“Give her time. She’ll get sick of me real quick.”

“No she won’t and just to prove it why don’t you watch her for a minute while I go find out what exactly it was that brought you all here in the first place,” Amaya said as she made her way out of the room.

“Wait what? Amaya? I- oh crap.”

 

Ashanti pulled back and poked at Mick’s nose with a smile.

 

“Okay you need to stop touching my nose. It’s annoying and don’t act like you don’t know what I’m saying ‘cause I saw you look confused even before your mom translated something for ya.”

 

Ashanti just glared at him in response.

 

“Don’t worry. I won’t tell your mom.”

“Okay. I love you, baba.”

“Yeah yeah, love you too kid but just so you know you have lousy taste in friends.”

“Baba doesn’t mean friend. My mama lied to you.”

“Why’d she do that?” Mick frowned in confusion.

“I don’t know. Why’d she tell me you were dead and then say that you weren’t my baba? Who knows?”

“She told you I was dead? When?”

“When I asked her where you were. She said that my baba wasn’t in the village because he was dead.”

“Wait… What does baba mean?”

“Baba means father. And mama can lie all she wants but you have the same eyes and the same nose as me. I can tell.”

“No. Wha- that ain’t… Come with me,” Mick said adjusting the girl in his arms as he headed out of the Galley.

“Where are we going?”

“To the Medbay.”

“What’s a Medbay?”

“I’ll tell ya when we get there.”

 

After arriving in the Medbay Mick set Ashanti down on the chair and asked Gideon to compare the girl’s DNA to his own.

 

“Might I ask why, Mr. Rory?”

“Where’s that voice coming from?”

“The ceiling. Now never mind why I need you to run her DNA just do it.”

“As you wish,” Gideon replied before a blue light scanned across Ashanti’s form.

“DNA analysis complete. The young miss Jiwe’s DNA is a fifty percent match to your own. Congratulations on fatherhood, Mr. Rory… Mr. Rory?”

 

And then Mick fainted.

 

“Pardon the interruption but I thought you should know that Mr. Rory has collapsed in the Medbay,” Gideon informed the rest of the Legends.

“The Medbay? What’s he doing in the Medbay?” Amaya shrieked as she rushed off with worry that something might’ve happened to her daughter to have led them there.

 

“Wake up, baba! Wake up, wake up, wake up!” Ashanti screamed at Mick as she gently slapped his face repeatedly until he finally woke up.

“Baba! Baba I was so scared! I thought you had died!” Ashanti screeched as she threw her arms around Mick’s neck with tears running down her face.

 

He tentatively reciprocated the action, pulling his arms around the little girl he now knew to be his. Never in a million years did he think he’d be a father, especially not to such an amazing little girl like Ashanti. She was so scared from his fall that she was shaking in his arms.

 

“Shh, shh. It’s okay. It’s okay, I’ve got you. I’ve got you,” he reassured her, rocking her in his arms as he rubbed her back to calm her.

 

Mick never expected to be a father… but now he was. The question now was, what the hell was he to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought down below! Sorry for the wait!


	5. Mick and Amaya

So, here he was, Mick Rory with a little girl in his arms, his own flesh and blood, shaking from a fear he caused. He had never thought in a million years he’d wind up with a daughter and the thought that he had scared her even just by fainting instead of how his old man always scared him…. Well… it left a knot in the pit of his stomach. He didn’t know what to do in this situation, so he just kept rocking her in his arms to calm her down… seemed to be working. He swore that no matter what, he was never going to be the cause of her fears again. He didn’t want that for her. He didn’t want his baby girl to be scared because of him ever.

 

“Mick, why the hell is Ashanti in the Medbay?!” Amaya screamed as she came in with Nate and Sara.

“What happened?” Sara asked.

 

Mick just ignored their words, looking away from them as he kept rocking Ashanti in his arms even though she had already calmed down by now. He liked holding her. And he wasn’t sure how Amaya would react to finding out he knew of his relation to Ashanti… especially with _Pretty_ standing right beside her.

 

“Mick, answer me! Why is Ashanti in the Medbay?” Amaya insisted.

“If I may, Mr. Rory brought the young miss Jiwe into the Medbay for a DNA analysis,” Gideon interrupted.

“Why the hell would Mick want to run Ashanti’s DNA?” Nate asked.

“Good question but first, what’s DNA?”

“It’s this… stuff that a person is made of that can show if a person committed a crime by comparing their blood to evidence or show that two people are related,” Sara explained.

“Oh crap,” Amaya muttered, turning to look down at Mick and their daughter on the floor.

“I don’t get it. Why would Mick want to run Ashanti’s DNA? It doesn’t make any sense,” Nate interjected.

“Gideon, can you tell us what the tests showed?” Sara asked.

“I really don’t think that’s necess-”

“DNA analysis showed a fifty percent match to Ms. Jiwe as well as a fifty percent match to Mr. Rory, confirming the paternal relation miss Jiwe informed Mr. Rory of in the Galley.”

“Wait… what? What do you mean Ashanti informed-”

“Hold up. Hold up. Gideon are you sure you’re not just experiencing a computer glitch? Because in order for Mick to be Ashanti’s father then that would mean that Amaya would have had to have cheated on me before she left and there’s no way that she-” Nate began to say before looking at Amaya’s guilty face.

“Seriously? Seriously?! You and Mick?!”

“Nate-”

“No! Wha- you cheated on me with Mick?! Mick? Really? Of all people you cheated on me with him?!”

“It was one time. I mean we were both drunk-”

“I wasn’t.”

“What?” Amaya asked in shock as she turned her head to Mick.

“I said I wasn’t drunk when we slept together. Least no more than usual. Didn’t even realize that you _were_ drunk.”

“I don’t understand. If you weren’t drunk then why would you-”

“Ain’t that hard to figure out,” Mick said picking himself up off the floor with Ashanti in his arms before handing her to Amaya.

“Excuse me,” Mick added as he headed out of the room to Ashanti’s confusion.

“Baba? Baba?! Baba! Baba!” Ashanti cried out, reaching out for Mick who was already long gone.

“ _Ashanti, it’s okay. It’s okay, daddy just needs some space right now. Okay?_ ”

“Okay so now back to what Gideon said. What did she mean when she said Ashanti informed Mick that they were related when she can’t speak English?” Sara interrupted.

“That’s a good question,” Amaya said glaring at her daughter.

“Uh…”

“You speak English?”

“Yeeeeees.”

“Okay you are in big trouble. But first I need to go talk to Mick. Sara can you watch her? I’d ask Nate but A, he’s mad at me, and B, he probably couldn’t handle her.”

“Hey!”

“Sure thing. I’ll take her,” Sara said taking the little girl into her arms as Amaya headed off to find Mick.

 

Meanwhile, Mick dropped down onto the floor of his room and held his Fire Totem in his hand, staring down at the very totem that once killed Kuasa, his own granddaughter. She had seemed afraid of the totem on the rare occasions they faced off. Whether because of her own experience with the totem or the element it controlled didn’t matter. All that mattered is that when he wore it she’d look upon him with fear. The thought made him sick.

 

He tore the totem off his neck and tossed it away in disgust. That thing cost his granddaughter her life once and the element itself destroyed her home, her village, her mother, _his daughter_. His daughter died in the fires at Zambesi. Fire cost him so much and now he knew it would cost him his child and grandchild. The thought of ever going near a flame made his stomach churn.

 

“Mick, we need to- Are you crying?” Amaya asked as she entered the room.

“No,” Mick said wiping his eyes dry, not having even realized they were wet until Amaya said something.

“You want to talk about it?” Amaya asked as she took a seat beside him.

“No,” Mick replied before letting out a sigh, “Yes. How else am I supposed to react when I find out that I have a kid whose life I probably can’t be a part of without screwing up all of time and space, and that the totem I wear is the same one that once killed my own grandkid? All my life I’ve loved fire. Now I know that I have a kid who’s destined to die in flames and she’s a sweet kid. She’s smart and funny, a hell of a spitfire,” he said, giving a dry laugh.

“She’s a good kid… and she’s my kid. But she’s going to die because of the very element that I control and… I know I’m not supposed to change the past but… how? How do you do it? How do you just let it happen? How do you not just change everything just to keep her safe?” Mick asked, not in a judgmental way but one of actual confusion, as if he wanted to know how to be strong like she always was.

“It’s the hardest thing in the world. There are times where I just want to take Ashanti and flee my village so that she never has to die. But then there are times where I remember that Mari has a bright future ahead of her, a future she won’t reach unless things happen as they’re supposed to. It’s hard, Mick, and most of the time I wonder if it’s even worth it, but… but sometimes you just have to have faith that things will work out for the best.”

“I ran out of faith a long time ago.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought down below!


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